What’s Your #LiteraryAlias?
The hottest title arriving today, in terms of media coverage, is Salman Rushdie’s memoir of his nine years in hiding after a Fatwah was issued against him, Joseph Anton (Random House; Random House Audio). The NYT‘s Michiko Kakutani heralds it today saying, “after several disappointing novels, [this memoir] reminds us of [Rushdie’s] fecund gift for language and his talent for explicating the psychological complexities of family and identity. ”
All the news stories mention that the memoir’s title refers to the alias Rushdie used during that time, “Joseph Anton.” The name is composed of the first names of his favorite authors, Joseph from Joseph Conrad and Anton from Anton Chekhov.
Based on that, Random House Library Marketing has come up with a clever Twitter/Facebook challenge; “Forced underground, @SalmanRushdie’s alias combined the names of writers he loved—#JosephAnton. What’s your #LiteraryAlias?”
Ours is Edith Attica (when your tweet yours, be sure to use the hashtags).
Some of you may be wondering if Rushdie spills any beans about ex-wife, Top Chef host Padman Lakshmi in the book. The Daily Beast answers that question in item #10 of “11 Revelations From Salman Rushdie’s Memoir, Joseph Anton.”